Abstract

The structural and compositional dependence of gadolinium-aluminum oxide (GdAlO) for application to nonvolatile memory is investigated. An addition of Gd into AlO reduces the leakage current, which improves the erase window. The GdAlO filmcrystallizes into many different phases after annealing depending on the Gd percentage when the amount of Gd exceeds 49%. The crystallization of the GdAlO film causes a change in the band gap of the GdAlO film, resulting in a change of the retention properties. It is also found that crystallized GdAlO is more vulnerable to the generation of traps by electrical stress. The results indicate that careful optimization of the Gd percentage in GdAlO is necessary to utilize the benefit of GdAlO with minimum deterioration in the charge retention property.

Received 11 December 2009Accepted 15 January 2010Published online 05 February 2010

Acknowledgments:

This work was financially supported by Hynix Semiconductor Inc. The authors would like to thank Jusung Engineering Co. and UP Chemical Co. for the ALD equipment and the precursor supports, respectively.